Regular foundational work involves and requires a lot of communication and collaboration, causing a large number of, mainly digital, contributions and submissions from its members: information, ideas, statements, knowledge, results, data, etc. -- being delivered in various formats: emails, documents, meeting minutes, talks, spread sheets, slides, charts, graphics, etc. To enable open processes, OSCA Foundation regards members' contributions as either public or members only, according to the following principles:
Cooperative Process
The development of OSCAF Recommendations and Specifications is a cooperative process in which representatives of software users, software developers and other interested parties work together in good faith to create industry specifications that benefit their own companies and the entire industry. Numerous advantages naturally accrue to OSCAF Members who actively influence the content of a new specification, but any use of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to “ambush” users of the specification or gain any unfair competitive advantage is unacceptable to OSCAF and to its members.
Rights of Publication
OSCAF and its members shall be free to use and publish any research results, ideas, algorithms, techniques and other information developed in connection with the Foundation during the term of the member agreement, except that intellectual property described below shall be subject to the licenses specified therein.
Disclosure
All OSCAF Members, whether or not they are submitters of a proposed specification, are expected to disclose relevant patents, patent applications and other IPR that may be necessary to the implementation of an OSCAF recommendation or specification. It is the firm policy of OSCAF that patented (or patentable) technologies will be included in OSCAF recommendations or specifications only after receipt of assurances that their use in implementing the specification will be permitted on Royalty-Free (RF) or commercially reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. Such disclosures should be made as early in the specification development process as possible, so that OSCAF Members will have as much opportunity as possible to reconsider the use of the disclosed IPR. However, except for the disclosure requirements OSCA Foundation makes no inquiry into the existence or non-existence of any patent rights or other IPR relating to a specification or any implementation of a specification. The introductory matter to every OSCAF specification shall include an appropriate statement to this effect.
Confidential Information Policy
All information disclosed at any OSCAF meeting, and all submissions to OSCAF, will be deemed to be public information that has been disclosed without any restrictions on use by anyone. However, no valid copyright or patent right will be deemed by OSCAF to have been waived by such disclosure.
If an OSCAF Member wants to keep certain information confidential, they should not disclose it at an OSCAF meeting.
Any time members wish to discuss confidential information, they must set up a separate meeting completely outside the OSCAF process and have participants sign non-disclosure agreements.
Contributions to the OSCA Foundation are regarded non-confidential, but will not necessarily be explicitly published. Only documents and information explicitly geared towards the public will be published, however, the foundation is not liable for disclosing information.